We are often preoccupied with ourselves in a way that keeps us restless, resentful, and anxious. So how do we fix it? Why is it so hard to find true, lasting, soul-settling contentment in our lives?

Most of us want Jesus to help us get through the life that we already have created for ourselves. We would like Him to show up here or there, maybe throw a few blessings our way or help work some things out in our favor. But Jesus did not come to help you get through life, He came to give you an entirely new one! And new in every way! One of the reasons we might feel frustrated or disappointed with God in our life might be because we keep trying to fit Him into an old life with old priorities. Don’t settle for just letting Him get you through, let Him make you new.

You’ve heard the “Good News” right? But has it changed you? Why does the “Good News” of Jesus feel more like average news? We might be underestimating Jesus. It’s happened before. Fortunately, His love warms our cold hearts and awakens our sleepy souls.

The Christmas story shows you that before any response or acknowledgment from you had ever been offered, God set about your restoration. His Goodness towards you was not (and is not) brought about by yours. His faithfulness was not (and is not) dependent on yours. The Truth of God revealed in Jesus invites us to reconsider how God moves, acts, and orchestrates our lives. Like waves crashing upon the shore of the ocean, John helps us to see the restoration of God for us as love upon love crashing on the shores of our hearts.

When the Word, Jesus, became flesh, He took upon Himself all of the weakness, frailty, sinfulness, and corruption of the human condition. Our condition. And because Jesus united with us, we are now united with Him. All our corruption, all our darkness, all our brokenness, is being driven out by His goodness. It’s beautiful. It’s life-giving. It’s what Christmas is all about.

The glory of Christmas is seen in a love from God that overcomes a world that actively resists His love. Even in your own soul, when there is no life, when the darkness is incomprehensible, when the truth is muddled and unrecognizable, His Love is making a way. Every part of your life, even the parts that do not know God or honor Him, are becoming places shaped by His love for you.

What kind of life does Christmas call us into? For starters, it calls us to never make peace with the brokeness around us or in us. We might have grown so accustomed to accepting pain, depression, fear, injustice or disconnection as simply part of our existence that we forget that God came to vanquish them and to give us life. In our discouragement, we may make peace with their presence, but the presence of Jesus has come to drive them out of our hearts. This week we look at John’s poetic and beautiful introduction to the purpose of Christmas in the first chapter of his gospel. There is more hope in his words than we can possibly imagine.

Imagine that in your most life-defining moment the God of the universe, the Architect of the stars and Designer of your life, came to you and directly asked you this very simple and open question, “What do you want me to do for you?” How would you answer? Would you even begin to know how to respond? For many of us, we may not have had even a still moment in our life recently to stop and think about it. But if we did, what would we say? Would we even know to ask for the right thing? What if what we asked for was too small? Or too big? What if it is not the thing He wanted to give us?

Jesus has a bizarre conversation with a woman. It is probably one of the strangest conversations He ever has with someone. Yet by the end of it, Jesus declares that she has defined true faith for everyone. Her secret? She grasped grace like nobody else could.

The presence of God is available to us in the everyday spaces of our lives. In fact, at any moment of our lives, we can encounter the Word of God which transforms us into vessels of life for others around us.